My Days at Pfizer

 

I reported for work at 8 AM and then to an orientation room where they explained what I would be doing.  The plant ran 24/7 which meant there were 3 shifts.  7 day shifts (8AM – 4PM) and 2 days off; 7 mid-shifts (4PM-12Midnight) and 2 ½ days off; and 7 midnight shifts (12Midnight – 8AM) with 3 days off.  I would work with another man – he on one side of the filtering platform, me on the other side.  The filters were a series of heavy milled frames one inch thick, 2 feet wide, and 4 foot X 4 foot square.  In the center of the frame was a canvas filter.  Raw Terramycin was pumped through the frame and, when the space between the canvas and the next frame was filled, we would open the first frame, pull it back about 1 foot and scrape the canvas clean.  Then we would move on to the next frame.  There were about 50 frames per filter.  The company supplied us with a one piece, long sleeved, jump suit, rubber boots, eye protection, mask and gloves.  I don’t think this chemical was safe to touch.  

One hot summer night (the plant was not air conditioned), we had all the windows open and a mosquito bit my arm – through the jump suit.  I kept rubbing the bite and by the end of my shift, my arm and hand were swollen twice their size. The foreman sent me to the hospital.  I had staph infection.  I was placed in an isolation room for 9 days.  The company told me to stay home for 2 more weeks.  I told the foreman I didn’t want to handle any of that chemical anymore, so they moved me to a new job.  

Now I would fill a huge storage tank 4 stories high and 100 feet wide with that same chemical.  I don’t remember how many 100s of gallons it held, but I didn’t touch any of it – just opened and closed valves.  When the tank was filled, I opened a valve and sent the Terramycin to be filtered.  When the tank was empty, I opened a valve and let live steam into the tank for about 2 hours to kill the bacteria.  I figured out how to open a couple of valves at once thereby dumping the tank much faster and then turn on the steam.  I would then climb up on the top of the tank.  The weather was getting colder and it was nice and warm from the steam.  I would go to sleep and wake up before midnight to go home.  Lots of times I wouldn’t wake up until daylight and have to sneak down to the locker room, take a shower, change clothes, and go home.  I would go through the guardhouse and not punch out.  The next day I would come to work early and take my timecard into the office.  I would tell them that I forgot to punch out at midnight and they would sign my card.  I would take it back to the time clock and punch in for my shift.  After 2 months of this job, I went to see my Uncle. 

I told him I hated the shifts.  On day shifts I was okay; on 4-12s I had diarrhea; and on midnights I was constipated.  I couldn’t sleep when it was light out, so I kept falling asleep at work on the night shifts.  I couldn’t eat a sandwich at 4 AM.  Often, after our 4 AM “lunch hour” the foreman would come looking for me and find me asleep with my head on the table and my face in my sandwich.  Nighttime was for sleeping – not working.  An opening came up in a different building – steady 6AM – 2PM shift.  I worked 2 years on this shift.  A man I worked with had a landscaping business, putting in lawns for new home construction.  At the time, there were lots of new, expensive homes being built in Connecticut.  He needed someone who could drive a dump truck.  I told him I could drive anything with wheels.  I just needed a quick lesson and I could do it!  I worked for him for the next 2 years.  After my 6AM-2PM shift was over, I would work for him from 3PM – 6PM.  Then I would eat something and go to college from 7PM to 10:30 PM.  College was 3 nights a week.  Somewhere in between, I would study.  After 2 years of this, I decided my social life was nonexistent.  All I did was work and go to school.  I called my Mom – quit my job and went home!

My mother was born in Ireland and, if you know anything about Irish mothers, you’ll know that their first born son is like a god.  No woman is ever good enough and he can do nothing wrong!  All I had to do was tell my Mom I had been in the hospital because I had reacted to the chemical.  It didn’t matter that her brother worked for Pfizer for 47 years and I only lasted 2. She loved her prodigal son!  Thanks Mom!

Resourcefulness

When we moved to the suburbs, I was 6 and I met a boy who lived a few houses away from me.  He was a year younger and we became best friends.  His name was Wes.  Over the next few years, we would go fishing almost every day in the summertime and, on Saturdays, we would go to the movies.  We would each get a quarter from our mothers – fifteen cents to get into the movies and ten cents for popcorn and a drink.  There was a serial series with a cliff hanger at the end to keep us kids coming back every Saturday.  This was followed by 3 or 4 cartoons and then the movie.

We had to walk about a mile to the theater.  We took a paper grocery bag and two straws with us.  On the way, we passed a small supermarket with empty cases of soda bottles stacked up on the sidewalk, waiting for a soda delivery.  We would each take 5 empty bottles - all from different cases – and put them in the grocery bag.  There was an A&P store near the theater.  We would cash in the bottles at 2 cents each – so we both had an extra 10 cents. 

Next we would go to a gas station near the movie.  They had a soda machine out front of the office.  The machine was about the size of a chest freezer.  Opening the lid, the bottles were in rows in between metal strips held there by the neck of the bottle.  To buy a soda you had to slide the bottle to the front into a clamp, insert a nickel and the clamp would open and release the soda. Wes and I always carried a pocket knife for fishing.  It had many attachments – one was a bottle opener.  We would open one bottle and, using the straws, each drink half of the bottle.  Then we would go to the movies, have popcorn and come out of the show with 15 cents each in our pocket.  

About 6 months later, Wes told me that his Aunt had become the manager of the movie theater.  We now got in for free.  We no longer had to turn in bottles to earn 10 cents.  Now when we went to the movies, if we didn’t buy popcorn or a drink, we each came out with the 25 cents we started with.  We never did tell our Moms about the change in our “expenses.” 

This “resourcefulness” (nice word for what it was) followed me to college.  I would go to all the dorms and tell the students I would take all their empty bottles once a week and pay them 1 cent a bottle.  Most students were from out of state and didn't know that in West Virginia they paid 3 cents for a returned bottle so I made 2 cents on each return.  The dorms were full so they moved the older freshmen into army barracks that were used during WWII for officer training.  It was great for those of us who were moved into one of the huts.  Each one had 3 rooms -- a bedroom, living room and kitchen.  After our first 3 day weekend at home, it seemed we all came back with shotguns.  A bunch of us would drive through the country dirt roads and shoot quail, then pick a bag full of corn.  There were no pots in the kitchen, so a couple of the guys bought 2 electric turkey fryers.  We filled one with water for the corn, the other one with peanut oil.  We cleaned and breaded the birds and cooked 4-5 at a time.  Half way through all the lights went out – we had blown the main electric breakers and it took 2 hours for it to be fixed.  In the meantime, we ate the birds that were cooked and tossed the rest.  We found out that our great corn on the cob was inedible – it was cattle corn and much too tough to eat – so much for our home cooking.

When we returned to school after the Christmas holidays full of our Mom’s home cooking, the first meal they served in the mess hall was 2 pieces of fried sliced bologna, potatoes and something they called “greens” (which looked like they had been cooking since we left).  Have you ever seen what happens to a slice of bologna when it’s fried??  It bubbles up so it looked like 2 boobs on the plate.  We all left and went into town for a hamburger.  For breakfast, we would buy a box of cereal and a box of powdered milk.  We would mix them together in a bowl and add water.  Not a gourmet breakfast but definitely better than whatever the mess hall was serving.  

The only thing I liked about West Virginia was a store that sold “spud-nuts” – doughnuts made from potatoes.  They weren’t very nutritious, but they were filling.  

 It rained almost every day in the fall and the clay soil became slippery, especially where the land crabs pushed up water and mud from their underground dens.  Running track was almost impossible because you would step on one of the mounds and slip and slide and fall down.  One year was all I could take of that state and that college.